Turning Out the Lights on the Enlightenment
by Ken Sanders
www.dissidentvoice.org
March 25, 2005

The
government's reaction to and intervention in the sad tale of Terri Schiavo
is but the latest indication that the United States is gradually slipping
farther and farther away from the moorings of the Enlightenment: rationality
and empiricism over faith and religion. This dimming of the Enlightenment
ideals upon which the U.S. was founded is spearheaded by Bush and the
Republicans, who profess to be conservatives but behave like zealots.

It should not be news to anyone that President Bush, who famously declared
Jesus Christ as his “favorite political philosopher,” has no qualms about
making religion, specifically evangelical Christianity, a cornerstone of his
presidency. Granted, all presidents invoke God in their speeches and
statements. What makes Bush stand apart, however, is the number of times he
references God and how he does so. One need only recall Bush's inaugural
speeches and State of the Union addresses where he invoked God an average of
6 times per speech, more than any other president in history.

What also distinguishes Bush from prior presidents is the manner in which he
invokes God. Unlike prior presidents, Bush does not speak as a petitioner of
God, seeking blessing and guidance. Rather, Bush speaks as a prophet of God,
declaring God's desires for America and the world. For instance, Bush has at
least twice reportedly claimed that God speaks through him. Indeed, prior to
running for president in 2000, Bush confided, “I feel like God wants me to
run for president.”

Bush is not alone in thinking that his presidency is a matter of divine
right. General William Boykin told an Oregon congregation, “George Bush was
not elected by a majority of the voters in the United States. He was
appointed by God.” Gen. Boykin, of course, is the one who declared that he
defeated the Muslims in Somalia because his God was a “real God” while
theirs was a “false idol.”

Bush's evangelism is reflected in his actions, as well as his rhetoric. In
his judicial appointments, Bush has selected some who share his more
restrictive form of Christianity. James Leon Holmes, confirmed as U.S.
District Court judge last July, has asserted that “Christianity transcends
the political order” and the “final reunion of Church and state will take
place at the end of time, when Christ will claim definitive political power
over all creation, inaugurating a new society based on the supernatural.”
Additionally, Holmes is of the rather Biblical opinion that “the wife is to
subordinate herself to her husband.” William Pryor, awaiting confirmation to
the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, was an early supporter of Alabama's
Judge Roy Moore, who surreptitiously installed a 2-ton granite monument to
the Ten Commandments in the rotunda of the state Judicial Building. In his
support of Moore, Pryor declared that, “God has chosen, through his son
Jesus Christ, this time, this place for all Christians ... to save our
country and save our courts.”

Bush's old-time religion is further reflected in his administration's
tampering with and general disdain for science. In its zeal to foist
abstinence-only programs upon American schools, the Bush administration has
resorted to using false information and replacing scientific fact with
religious belief. Abstinence-only programs teach that condoms do not help
prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Such programs also
teach that 10% of women who have abortions will become sterile and that the
risk of premature birth is increased following an abortion. Furthermore,
abstinence-only programs state as proven fact that life begins at conception
and that after 43 days a fetus becomes a “thinking person.” All of the above
examples are directly contrary to established scientific fact.

Bush's evangelism is shared by Republican members of the Legislature, as
well as by at least one justice of the Supreme Court. For instance, in the
book One Electorate Under God?, Congressman Mark Souder of Indiana declares,
“To ask me to check my Christian beliefs at the public door is to ask me to
expel the Holy Spirit from my life when I serve as a congressman, and that I
will not do.” Last week, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay remarked to the
Family Research Council that, “One thing that God has brought to us is Terri
Schiavo, to help elevate the visibility of what is going on in America.” In
2002, during a speech delivered at the University of Chicago Divinity
School, Justice Antonin Scalia defended capital punishment not on legal
grounds, but religious ones. “Few doubted the morality of the death penalty
in the age that believed in the divine right of kings.”

Following Bush's reelection, much hay was made about the
evangelical-Christian vote being the difference between Bush and Kerry.
Indeed, Reverend Bob Jones III wasted no time in reminding the newly-elected
Bush of the debt he owed to the evangelists: “In your re-election, God has
graciously granted America -- though she doesn't deserve it -- a reprieve
from the agenda of paganism.... You owe the liberals nothing. They despise
you because they despise your Christ....”

It is difficult to prove exactly what and how large of a role the
evangelists in particular and religion in general played in Bush's victory.
Nonetheless, as evidenced by post-election articles in The American
Prospect, recent speeches by Hilary Clinton, and by Democrats’ support for
the Terri Schiavo bill, Democrats have taken the bait and have begun to find
Jesus.

It would be a mistake for the Democrats to suddenly declare themselves born
again. First, the cynicism would be so transparent that any new-found piety
would likely blow up in the Democrats’ faces. Second, and more importantly,
it would be wrong for them to do so. The United States was founded upon
Enlightenment ideals of promoting reason over faith in government
deliberations, as well as protecting minorities from the tyranny of the
majorities, including religious ones. To that end, Jefferson and Madison
fought to include constitutional separation of church and state in the U.S.
Constitution. Bush and his cronies have demonstrated their lack of respect
for constitutional separation. Democrats should not abandon theirs.